Any hints for the best way to improve hosting performance?

[buckweaver]

Hi, It seems the more I upgrade, the more complaints I get about lag

some technical information...

Internet Frog results for speed test:
Upload speed: 391kbps
(1/2 of what cox advertises at my plan, bastards)
Download speed: 1.28 Mbps

AMD Athalon Xp 3000+
2.17 Ghz
448 MB of RAM


I sometimes use "end it all" to kill all but critcal processes, this seems to help a bit.

Will more ram, or a new fancy vid card (using on board with software rendering usually now) help?

HELP! I want to have a good host like I used to, what should I do?

[GodzFire]

Alright Timmah, your RAM is a little low (448 is a strange number), but there are many more things I can help you with to optimize your system. Next time I see you on Myth we can get on Vent and I can walk you through.

[Tireces]

Same problem here
I am on P4 3.0 Ghz, 512 RAM, G 5200FX, 1Mb down and 256 kbps up.
Sometimes I can host a coop for 8-10 ppls without lag or just a very small one, simetimes ppl got a huge freeze with only 3-4 players in my game...
Ah and pm.net lobby kicks me out every few minutes, II remember that Eddaweaver said that he has same lobby problem.

448 Ram hehe ? 3 slots : 256 + 128 + 64 ? I remeber that in my old comp (R.I.P) i had 256 + 16 + 16

[Eddaweaver]

448mb probably means you have 64mb syphoned off by the onboard video.

Your system should be plenty enough to host well. Software rendering is hard on the CPU, but yours is reasonbly fast and you don't have a software modem.

It is most likely the problem is your internet connection. Either the latency is just really bad or they're downshaping your Myth-related bandwidth. Alot of ISPs are now downshaping P2P traffic, and Myth ends up being caught in that net.

Edit: Tireces - it turns out the problem is bandwidth shaping. Tthe ISPs where I am have suddenly started this. This means my Myth bandwidth is now limited to around 50 bytes per second which means I can't play anymore, except on one or two players' hosts which happen to be in whitelisted IP ranges. The reason why the Mariusnet lobby is better is because Mariusnet is better programmed.

Although you may have fast ADSL or cable connections, the regimes the ISPs are implementing can either reduce you to as low as 5kb/s during peak times or insert delays designed to break P2P but which cause lag or disconnects in Myth or the Playmyth.net lobby.

[Tireces]

Edda, did u solve your lobby lag problem or is it beyond reach of common mortals and we are doomed forever ?

Edit: crapz0r but thx for info Edda : )

[Eddaweaver]

Yes. ISPs and universities are buying software packages to perform this task. From an ISP's perspective, it's a win-win-win situation: if the customer stays, they're not using any bandwidth, if they leave, they're costing them less than if they stayed and downloaded DVDs 24/7, and they're costing another ISP which doesn't bandwidth shape. Can you see why it's catching on? They more ISPs do it, the more that ISPs that don't do it come under pressure to follow. So even if you change to an ISP which isn't ruining your gaming experience now, there's a good chance they will later. I've really started to wonder if the infamous "Brasilian host" thing has long been because of this. Alot of Myth players may be silently having increased in-game delay and lag without ever releasing that it's happening.

From what I understand of the methods being used, hosting Myth on a low port such as :70 would probably evade the bandwidth shaping for most or all affected players. I'd be interested in testing this out - can anyone host on :70 in a TCP/IP game to test this?

[buckweaver]

Alot of Myth players may be silently having increased in-game delay and lag without ever releasing that it's happening.

How much bandwidth does myth need, really?

How can I find out if my isp is using bandwidth shaping?

Because i pay for an advertised (and upgraded) amount of bandwidth, not for just "cable".

The DL and UL speeds are always consistant when I check them.

Is it the RAM? THE ISP? THE GRAPHICS CARD? SETTINGS? is there some consensus?

[Eddaweaver]

How much bandwidth does myth need, really?

Not much, but it needs latency. Demoted priority traffic is going to slow down or break things. Being disconnected from the lobby suggests something severe.

How can I find out if my isp is using bandwidth shaping?

Read the terms & conditions and FAQs closely and read between the lines. I did a Google search:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,12428515
http://www.gnutellaforums.com/showthrea ... adid=33712

Because i pay for an advertised (and upgraded) amount of bandwidth, not for just "cable".

Yes, but ISPs say they support certain protocols like the web and email, and other things are "unsupported". They also often say you can't "run a server" in their terms & conditions.

The DL and UL speeds are always consistant when I check them.

What with? An online http speed test is irrelevant as those aren't downshaped.

Is it the RAM? THE ISP? THE GRAPHICS CARD? SETTINGS? is there some consensus?

I think it's more likely to be your internet connection than your computer, which would mean either the modem, the line or the ISP. Your computer is pretty fast, remember when Myth II was released people were still buying Pentium MMXs.

Edit: Take a look at these:
allot.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=343&Itemid=157
allot.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=46&Itemid=46
(copy & paste)

[buckweaver]

Being disconnected from the lobby suggests something severe.

I don't think I've ever been disconnected from the lobby, (not including the rare times when "the room went down")

This was some other myther's complaint.

Thanks for all you tips and information.

In your opinioin, will upgrading my RAM, or installing a 3rd party graphics card improve my host performance noticably?

cheers
-tim

[Tireces]

In your opinioin, will upgrading my RAM, or installing a 3rd party graphics card improve my host performance noticably?

99,99 % nope I have jumped from 128 Ram and GF2 MX 32 MB on 512 Ram and GFX5200 and it didnt change anything... Have u got a good anty spyware/addware aplication ? Spyware doctor saved me few times when my host had ping circa 6-7 sec...